Three in five second level students are educated in voluntary secondary schools, and the management of these schools is increasingly being done by the laity, according to a new book by educationalist Dr Eileen Doyle.

Doyle, who has served with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, looks at the sector's history in Leading The Way - Managing Voluntary Secondary Schools. She traces the major developments in denominational education and pays particular attention to the relationship between the churches and the Department of Education. The history of the main teacher unions is also examined in detail.

At the books's launch, Mr George O'Callaghan, the general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which manages more than 60 per cent of second-level schools, said the book was the first attempt to encapsulate the JMB's history. O'Callaghan, a former school principal, said school management today faced new challenges: "The changing educational landscape, characterised by development and reform of the curriculum, the changing mores and structures of society and the decline in religious in our schools, continues to focus the energies of school managers." Dr Doyle writes that the history of the JMB and its associated organisations is one of "natural leaders", whose resilience allowed the current progressive structures to be put in place.